The law is set to come down

However, activists have said issue of the so-called vaccination mandate must be subjected to more public consideration in light of how it violates peoples’ rights to choose.

Speaking at the 11th virtual Town Hall meeting under the theme, “Mandatory Covid-19 Vaccination: The Place of Public Health and Consent,” Winnie Kiiza, the former Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Forum of Democratic Change poohbah, expressed concern about the narrowing of freedoms under the Public Health Amendment Bill, 2021.

If the amendment bill sails through committee and is approved by the House, the Immunisation Act and the Venereal Diseases Act shall both be repealed.

The amendment further states, in part, that those who conceal any infectious disease as scheduled by the Ministry of Health will either be jailed for a year or face a fine of Shs3 million or both.

“This law is not being talked about even in the public domain. So we would encourage the committee to actively engage citizens otherwise they are violating principles of informed consent,” Kiiza argued.

“We wouldn’t want our bodies to be testing kits. We wouldn’t want our bodies to be used for trials. We would want to own our bodies. We want to know what is happening around us, what is put into our bodies, because the consequences of anything that might go wrong will be entirely on us.”

Kiiza said Ugandans must be given adequate information about vaccines which are going to be made mandatory. Most importantly, she stressed that the government would have to be ready to accept responsibility of any side effects suffered by Ugandans as a result of these vaccines.

According to Dr. Eva Mugisa, a pharmacist, the withdrawal of the consent forms from the onset of the Covid1-9 vaccination process in Uganda has presented a cocktail of challenges

“The consent forms were withdrawn. People started to go for vaccinations without appending their signatures on consent forms. Even at that time as medical workers, we were concerned because now we had a huge problem that has been created. People do not know what they are getting. The consent form is supposed to come with the indications for the vaccine in simplified language for the layman to understand, what is in the vaccine, what should you expect and also the possible short-term and long-term side effects,” Dr Mugisa said.

Earlier in this year, the minister of health has said that by the end of March every Ugandan should be vaccinated and so will be required to present proof of full vaccination to access public transport services effective 1st April, 2022.

The Minister for Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, said Ugandans would have been given enough time have been vaccinated by the date stipulated and so all passengers aged 18 years and above will have to present Covid-19 vaccination cards.

These cards must indicate a full dosage and, for older Ugandans, the ones above 50, a booster dose.